Niallivm

mpantone said:

rogifan_new said:

Will most people notice a difference in sound or does it depend on the hardware used to listen?

No. There have been many discussions over the years about lossless and/or high-definition music and the overall consensus is Joe Consumer listening to whatever contemporary music (rock, pop, hip-hop, rap, country, whatever) on his/her smartphone's earbuds or in their car can't tell the difference. 256kbps 16-bit AAC is perfectly adequate. Hell, contemporary music for the past 20-30 years has mostly been authored and mastered to play back adequately in a compressed range.

Lossless and/or high-def audio makes more sense when certain conditions come together. First of all are the listening conditions/hardware: you need very good speakers in a room with decent acoustics. Then you need the appropriate music that would benefit from an expanded dynamic range: classical, baroque, opera, some jazz. Then you need someone with a good set of ears who is really paying attention. 

I've acquired high-def audio tracks which I've ripped to 256kbps AAC and yes, I can hear the difference if I am concentrating and listening to it on my big speakers, particularly in the pianissimo sections or in pieces with an extremely wide dynamic range (some symphonies, some operas). If I have the stereo blasting while I am in the kitchen, again it doesn't matter; I can't tell the difference.

Streaming lossless/high-def audio to a portable device is basically a big waste of bandwidth unless it's plugged into a $500 headphone amp and $1000 headphones.

abracadabra said:

I almost canceled Apple Music subscription last year because of the lack of lossless.
Now the only inconvenience I can see now is that you cannot re-download the songs which have previously been downloaded in 256kbps AAC format. You have to remove the album from your library and then re-add it. Apple was lazy here and cut corners.

tots said:

While I haven't tried Spotify, Apple Music leaves a lot to be desired. Apple Music does very little to facilitate music discovery in the genres I like. For example, If I click on the browse section I'm greeted with Pop and R&B music. Most of my music interest is in Alternative, Singer/Song writer, Classical and Jazz. In order to get to these genres I've got to go to the browse tab, go to the bottom of the screen, and find "Genres". This process is extremely cumbersome as it blends in with reset of the UI elements.

Even the "For You" section isn't good at displaying new artists, tracks or playlists I may like. Sure it does personalize a bit, but I've found other than using "Recently Played" I never use anything else on the screen. 

Maybe I'm overly critical, but for a company that knows every iTunes song I've purchased, all the songs I've uploaded through iTunes Match and all the songs I listen to daily, I find discovery/personalization in Apple Music to be completely underwhelming if not non-existent.  

davgreg said:
I did try Spotify a while back and their sound quality is superior to the low bit rate streaming Apple uses.

rain22 said:

Niallivm said:

davgreg said:
I did try Spotify a while back and their sound quality is superior to the low bit rate streaming Apple uses.

Seriously? Did you actually compare the two or do you think the 320k Ogg Vorbis Spotify streams have superior sound quality to Apple's 240k AAC just because they have a higher bit rate?
Not all codecs are equal and AAC is a more modern, superior codec to the free Ogg Vorbis one. Spotify sounds compressed and clipped whereas Apple Music, especially when played though AAC-capable speakers or headphones, knocks it out of the park. It may not be as good as Tidal lossless or High Resolution, but then it's not $20 a month either.

Seriously? Have you ever compared 320 Ogg Vorbis Spotify to Apple's 240k AAC on a system capable of even minute reference? 
It's night and day. You don't have to spend a lot of money to get into very basic hifi capabilities.
Try it - and you will immediately understand and hear the difference.